Ambulance service fails to meet targets

AMBULANCE services in Birmingham and Solihull are still failing to meet Government targets for responding to 999 calls six years after the deadline set by Ministers, opposition politicians have claimed.

AMBULANCE services in Birmingham and Solihull are still failing to meet Government targets for responding to 999 calls six years after the deadline set by Ministers, opposition politicians have claimed.

But services in Staffordshire, which are now run by the same ambulance trust, are among the best in the country.

Tory Shadow Health Minister Stephen O’Brien accused the Government of presiding over a "growing disparity" in health care.

The Government's NHS Plan, published in July 2000, said the ambulance service should respond to 75 per cent of "category A" calls – the most serious emergencies – within eight minutes.

It said: "This progress on ambulance response times will save up to 1,800 lives a year."

The deadline for meeting the target was 2001.

But the ambulance service achieves a response time of eight minutes for only 67 per cent of category A calls in Solihull.

In the area covered by South Birmingham Primary Care Trust, which includes Selly Oak, Northfield, Edgbaston and Hall Green, ambulances arrive within eight minutes to 72 per cent of calls.

The figure was the same for the area covered by North and East Birmingham Primary Care Trust, which includes Yardley, Erdington, Perry Barr and Sutton Coldfield.

By contrast, the target is being met in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Sandwell and Dudley.

The target was also met in the area covered by Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust, which includes Aston, Small Heath, Sparkbrook and Ladywell.

And in Stoke, Staffordshire, ambulances arrive within eight minutes to 90 per cent of calls.

A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance service said that across Birmingham and the Black Country, 80 per cent of category A calls were now responded to in eight minutes.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "NHS Ambulance Trusts are required to meet national response time standards for their Trusts as a whole.

"In 2006-07, 8 out of the 13 Ambulance Trusts were meeting the required level for responding to category A calls within 8 minutes, 75 per cent of the time."